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Tuesday, 4 February 2014

February 15th in Queer History

Born this day

Cesar Romero (1907 – 1994) US
Film and television actor who was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years. His wide range of screen roles included Latin lovers, historical figures in costume dramas, characters in light domestic comedies, and as The Joker in television's Batman series.

Herman Meijer(1947 – ) Dutch
Fprmer politician for the Dutch Greens, he is a graduate architect and urban planner. He has been active politically for the student movement, as a gay activist, and for peace - and anti- racism committees. He was also one of the founders of the movement Christians for Socialism .

Bill T Jones(1952 – ) US
Artistic director, choreographer and dancer. who has twice won Tony awards for best choreogaphy: in 2007 for "Spring Awakening", and in 2010 for Fela!

Ernesto Scorsone (1952 – ) US
Politician, lawyer, and judge from Kentucky. A Democrat, he was appointed to the Fayette County Circuit Court in 2008 by Governor Steve Beshear, and later elected to a six-year term on the court. Previously, he had been a member of the Kentucky State Senate

Edwin Cameron (1953 – ) South African
Judge, serving on South Africa's Constitutional Court. Cameron served as a Supreme Court of Appeal judge from 2000 to 2008. He was the first senior South African official to state publicly that he was living with HIV/AIDS. Before his appointment to the bench, he practiced as a human rights lawyer, and has been prominently involved in numerous important court cases affecting LGBT rights and equality, and has won numerous awards, in South African and internationally.
Cameron has also co-authored a number of books, including "Defiant Desire – Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa" (with Mark Gevisser).

Mikey Craig (1960 – ) UK
Former DJ who became the bassist with Culture Club, one of the most popular bands of the 1980s.

Titti de Simone (1970 – ) Italian
Journalist and politician, who was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of the Italian parliament) in 2001, and in 2006 was elected secretary to the President of the Chamber.

She is president of the Sicily Queer Filmfest.

Miranda July(1974 – ) US
Performance artist, writer, actress and film director. Born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger,[1] she works under the surname of "July,"

Died this day

Henry Brandon(1912 - 1990 ) German / US
A character actor in over 100 films, famous for playing Indian, Arab, Persian, Turkish, Native American and East Asian roles, usually villains.

Professor of English language and literature in the Netherlands. He was also a novelist, who won the Ferdinand Bordewijk Prijs in 1987 for his novel Mystiek lichaam. This work attracted criticism in gay circles for its alleged homophobia, but Kellendonk was himself gay, and died of complications following AIDS a month after his 39th birthday

Arturo Islas (1938 - 1991) US
Professor of English and a novelist, writing about the experience of Chicano cultural duality. Islas died on February 15, 1991 from complications related to AIDS.Victor Kovyl (???? - 2002 ) Belarusian
Hate Crime Victim. On 15 February 2002 34 year old accountant Victor Kovyl was found dead in his parents’ flat. He was openly gay both at work and in public. The police refused to give the details of the murder to Kovyl’s partner Alexander and one of the members of the police said to him: “It serves you right, sodomites (faggots)!”.Yardena Marsh (?? - 2006) Israeli
Transgender Murder Victim

Sodomy in history, February

1839 — Mississippi passes a sodomy law, doing away with its reliance on the common law to prosecute it. The penalty is set at a maximum of 10 years in prison.

1858 — A proposed new criminal code for the District of Columbia, which includes a sodomy law with a penalty of 2-10 years, is defeated 73%-27% by District voters.

1893 — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, in the first such case in the United States, rules that fellatio is not a "crime against nature."

1913 — The Idaho Supreme Court rules that the state’s sodomy law, with no maximum penalty established, permits a sentence of life imprisonment.

1967 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals rules that police do not have to detain potential defense witnesses in public restrooms when they arrest people for solicitation therein.